‘Silence is not an option’
The United Nations human rights expert who conducted an independent probe into the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday urged the US to act on her damning findings.
Agnes Callamard, a UN special rapporteur who concluded that Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October was “an extrajudicial execution” by the Gulf kingdom, criticised the United States over its inaction.
“(It) has the jurisdiction or at least the interest to take action,” she told a London conference hosted by human rights groups on the killing of the Saudi-born US resident.
“Silence is not an option. Speaking up is required but not enough. We have to act,” Callamard said.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, was killed last October by Saudi agents while at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork for his marriage. His dismembered body has not been found.
Callamard, UN rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, launched her investigation in January and last month released an 101-page report that found “credible evidence” linking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder and an attempted cover up.
Amid frustration at the global inaction since the publication of her findings on June 19, and Prince Salman being welcomed to a recent G20 meeting in Japan, she said the West risked a “democratic deficit” in not responding to widespread public disgust at the killing.
“That is dangerous... that democratic deficit must be tackled.”
Callamard does not speak for the UN but reports her findings to it.
She has called on Secretary General Antonio Guterres to initiate an international criminal investigation into the case. His office has said he does not have the authority to do this and a member state must initiate such action.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, appeared alongside Callamard at the London event and echoed her call for justice.
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